Ahhhh, Almeria!!!

We left the beautiful anchorage at San Jose early Sat. morning with the idea of catching up to Juno in the marina at Almeria. We weighed anchor under a full moon at 0600 and while Will slept down below Ruth and I headed offshore for a little sea room. The "big event" of this leg is Capo de Gata. This is one of those capes that is best given all the respect possible. Weather can get nasty around it, so we planned our circumnavigation for morning hours when we hoped the weather would be kindest.

We were fortunately not surprised, and so the wind held to a nice 5-10k on the nose. As we got around the corner I was able to snap a photo of the cape during the sunrise. (see photo attached to the previous blog.) The only thing better than a sunset is a sunrise!!

As we headed for the marina, still 15 nm away, I went up to the foredeck and noticed a bunch of black stuff on the deck. Further investigation revealed a flying fish that had committed suicide on our deck with his black scales going everywhere. (see photo) Since he was still a "freshie", I decided we would bag the bugger. The day before we had a dorado or something hit our squid lure. But it slid the hook before we had a chance to land him. So this flying fish was my big "catch". Besides, since I have been reading a book about some sailors stranded in a liferaft for -- get this -- 37 days!!, I decided it might do good to get a taste of these critters.

We made it into the marina OK, which was a bit of a victory. Last year we came here and got chased off because it is a small, private, club marina. Since they were running the Spanish Laser Nationals at the time, they had no room. So it's good to be able to check out the town. It is quite large with plenty of resources.

Which is just as well. Right after getting here I pulled the charging plug out of my laptop and it broke! Since this laptop is the bridge to our friends, family, and finances, that repair went right to the top of the list!! But since the next day, Sunday, is a day when only restaurants and bars are open, the repair would have to wait until Monday.

We spent Sunday touring the castle here, which is quite interesting. It is a very large, spacious, walled castle with beautiful manicured gardens, an Islamic palace from when the Moors ruled this area, and a Christian section from when the Christians won it back later and added on. It reminded me of Istanbul with its east/west religious dichotomy.

This morning (Monday) worked out about as well as could be imagined. After walking the streets of Almeria for 2.5 hours asking for directions to an electronics store, I finally found a Radio Shack-type of store and acquired the laptop charging plug. I got that soldered up and the laptop did not blow up when I plugged it in, so I guess we musta done good!!

Next I tackled the instruments. Ever since trying to fix the wind instrument in Cala Galera, Italy, the instruments at the port-side steering station have not displayed; nor down below at the nav station. The only instrument readouts we have had have been at the starboard-side steering station. I was certain the problem was related to my disturbing the wind instrument, so I kept going back to that to make the repair...but to no avail.

This morning, as much out of desperation as anything else, I tore into the port-side instruments and lo and behold!, I found some badly corroded wires from when the charter company did one of their "special" repair jobs. So after securing the proper part and splicing in the plug, bingo!, we have instruments.

So I am feeling pretty good since the instruments were a pretty big deal. I was worried I would need a new readout -- $1,000. So dodging that bullet is a big one. Plus I finally got all the bids in for hauling out and we'll haul out in Ceuta, Spain -- which is directly across the Straits from Gibraltar. That will allow me to repair the rudder and hopefully throw some teflon on the hull to speed it up during our "non-race" ARC rally!

We made reservations to go see the Alhambra on Thursday, so stand by for that report. Ciao for now...or is it adios?!!!!